First Solar, Inc. and its subsidiary, skytron energy GmbH, announced the opening of a new operations center in Berlin. First Solar’s third facility of its kind in the world, the center will be managed and operated by skytron energy, which was acquired by First Solar in 2014.

The operations center will provide remote monitoring, real-time supervision and plant control capabilities for photovoltaic (PV) energy assets located across the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. First Solar currently has two operations centers located in Tempe, AZ and Sydney, Australia.

“PV plants are now recognized as high value assets; their owners are focused on ensuring that they are optimized to reliably deliver the energy necessary to ensure profitable returns to investors,” said Troy Lauterbach, First Solar’s VP for global O&M.

First Solar is currently the largest utility-scale solar O&M provider in the world, managing a portfolio of more than 4,000 megawatts (MW) of PV plants.